The Windows XP/2000 Backup Types

The Windows XP/2000 Backup Types: "Backing up Windows XP/2000

Part 3: Choosing a Backup Type

When backing up your Windows XP/2000 computer with the Backup Utility, you have several options for what type of backup to perform. In fact, these are common options in nearly any backup software. Three of the choices are the most common types of backup: Normal (usually referred to as 'Full'), Differential, and Incremental. "

2000 Backup Server

I am back

Hi Guys, I am back.
I have been overseas for over a month, now I am back to keep up my information blog about backup. I hope you like what you see. If you have any ideas, please leave me a message.

Regards

Alexei

P.S. Here is a couple of sites where I saw a few nice articles recently.

File Backup Software
Tape Backup and Storage
Internet Backup Systems

Recommended Steps To Take Before Hiring a Transport Company To Ship Your Car, Boat, Horse, Furniture, or Move.

When you are having your valued items shipped, it is important to find the best hauler for job, not necessarily the cheapest. Customer service, reliability, and trustworthiness are all important factors in choosing a transport company. An unscrupulous trucker can cost you money, damage your property, and cause you a hard time.

Recommended Steps to take before hiring a transport company:

• Ask Questions - When you first contact a hauler, you should ask as many relevant questions as you can regarding the care they will take with your property, scheduling, contract issues, what type of equipment they have, licensing, insurance, and take some time to get a feel for the type of people you are dealing with. The vast majority of truckers / haulers are reputable business people that simply want to help you, the best way to weed out the few that aren't is in this first stage.
  

  
  

• Get References - Most haulers should be prepared to provide you with several references in regards to RECENT jobs they have done. If time allows try to contact every reference and ask questions regarding the type of service they received from their hauler. Remember, that no one is perfect all of the time, so if there are any less than perfect reviews, follow up with a question to see how the hauler resolved the issue.

Sample questions to ask provided references:

• What did you have __(company name)___ haul?
  
• When did they haul it?
  
• Did they keep you well informed of their pickup / delivery schedule?
  
• How well did they keep their original promised schedule?
  
• Did they take good care of your (car, boat, horse, furniture, etc..)?
  
• If any problems occurred, how did the hauler resolve them?
  
• How would you rate your overall experience with this hauler?
  
• Would your recommend this hauler to others?

Use the above questions in an e-mail or as a template for a phone conversation with the provided references, and you will have a very good idea of what to expect when you use the hauler yourself.

• Check Licensing - Your hauler should be able to provide you with his DOT number, and MC, Number. You can check the validity of their DOT number at the FMCA website: http://li-public.fmcsa.dot.gov/LIVIEW/pkg_carrquery.prc_carrlist- A DOT license lets you know that the hauler has filed the proper paperwork and pays the proper taxes and fees when hauling your items.
  

  
  

• Check Insurance - It's important for you to know that your carrier has adequate insurance to cover potential damage to your property. If you choose an uninsured or underinsured transport company you risk not being compensated for loss or damage of your (car, boat, horse, furniture, etc..).
  

  
  

• Check FindAHauler Profile - If your hauler has a profile in the FindAHauler.com Directory: http://FindAHauler.com/directory/you can view any feedback left regarding the hauler by other visitors to the site.
  

  
  

• Read contracts carefully - Many haulers will have you execute a transport contract prior to hauling your (car, boat, horse, furniture, etc..). Make sure that you read the contract and understand the provisions of the contract. If there is a down payment required, make sure you know the conditions under which it will or won't be refunded. Is the down payment due prior to the pickup of your property, when is the full payment due?. It is generally not advisable to pay a down payment prior to pickup of your property. If it is practical, you may want to negotiate the full payment upon delivery of your property.

If you follow the above advice, you should have an easy and stress free experience having your car, boat, horse, furniture, etc... transported. Thousands of people have had their cars, horse, boats, trailers, livestock, etc... shipped using FindAHauler.com since September of 2002, and it is very rare for any of them to have a problem with a hauler they have found using our site. We have a very aggressive stance on any users of our site not operating in an ethical and straightforward manner, and do our best to provide an easy and safe environment for all.

by: John Kaufman

from http://www.backupfordata.com

Compact Flash Card Backup: the Benefits

Backing up one's Compact Flash card has a number of benefits: storage, convenience and reliability.

Backup for storage

First of all, backing up one's Compact Flash card to a laptop is great for storing all kinds of data, stored on a card, like images, audio files and what not. Since Compact Flash card size is limited (to 4Gb for now), backing up one's card can be a convenient way of using a single card perpetually.

Backup for convenience

Secondly, backing up one's Compact Flash card can be a convenient way of copying data between laptops. Using such a small medium, which can fit in one's hand, to copy data between computers seems to be rather comfortable, as one does not have to connect the computers, or use another medium as an intermediate.

Backup for security

Thirdly, backing up one's Compact Flash card to a laptop can be a way to secure the data, stored on the card, in case a file gets deleted, damaged, or the card itself gets damaged or list. When coping data from a Compact Flash card to a laptop, the files will also be stored on a laptop and will be ready to replace the damaged or lost files.

As seem from above, Compact Flash card backup has a number of benefits. To reap the benefits, one can download Handy Backup and use it to backup one's Compact Flash card to a Windows laptop or any PC with the right adapter.

by: Filatov Mikhael

Retrospect 7 for Windows

Your home and home office computers contain more and more personal, family, and financial data. But what happens if you inadvertently delete a file, are attacked by a virus, or your computer fails? Will you lose your family photos or the only copy of your tax returns? Can you recover your information quickly to keep your home office running smoothly? That's why EMC Dantz designed Retrospect backup and recovery software - to make it easy to protect your data and computer systems.

•Set up and run in ten minutes
•Complete protection for Windows, Macintosh, and Linux desktops and notebooks
•Fast backups
•Smart restores with unparalleled accuracy
•Full Disaster RecoveryTo learn more about Retrospect, download a printer-friendly PDF of the Retrospect 7 for Windows Home and Home Office Product Family Datasheets. To learn about the features available in Retrospect 7 for Windows, visit our home and home office editions features page.

Where to buy?

Retrospect Professional
Retrospect Disk-to-Disk

Norton Ghost 9.0

Advanced backup and recovery for your PC


Symantec’s Norton Ghost 9.0 provides advanced backup and recovery for your PC. Protect your data by making a backup of your hard drive’s contents—without restarting Windows®. Incremental backups save you time and disk space. You can even schedule backups to run automatically. Quickly restore individual files, selected folders, or the entire hard drive.

Norton Ghost 9.0 User Guide

Top 7 Reasons You Should Back Up Your Data Online!

How much is your data worth to you? In this modern electronic-age we rely more than ever on our computers to supply us with the information we need. Chances are every piece of data you might ever rely on to make an important decision has been reduced to a digital format and resides somewhere on your computer's hard drive. Improved functionality and productivity are the benefits, however, on the flipside, one wrong click, one nasty virus, one untimely power surge or unhappy employee and that data is gone forever!

Online backups (also called offsite or remote backups) are a great solution for almost any small business or individual computer user.

1. The Statistics say you should.

a. Among the companies that experience data loss, 50% never re-open and 90% are out of business within two years.

b. 20MB of accounting data takes 21 days and costs $19,000 to reproduce.

c. Causes of data loss – 42% Hardware Failure, 30% Human Error, 13% Software Corruption, 7% Computer Viruses, 5% Theft.

2. Easy. Online backups are a simple way to protect your data. Online backup services provide the software application, server space and customer service in one turnkey solution. There are no additional software applications or equipment specifications to learn. The installation and set-up is quick and painless. Your backups can be scheduled to run automatically at any time you desire. There is no media, tapes or hardware to deal with.

3. Security. Believe it or not, online backups are generally more secure than in-house backup solutions. If your computers or data are affected by natural disaster, power failure/surges, viruses, vandalism, theft, human error, etc., your in-house backup will suffer the same consequences. Another unfortunate thing about tape backups is that they are not generally encrypted, and not very secure. Almost anyone can read them and gain access to your clients, sales, prospects, notes, billing records, payroll, tax info, and anything else on your computer.

Online backups encrypt (up to 448-bit) your data before transferring it to the remote server. Most backup servers are housed in secure locations with security guards, generators and the latest state-of-the-art security technology.

4. Inexpensive. Online backups give you more “bang for the buck.” Setting up a traditional data protection plan requires software, hardware, media and the man-hours necessary to set-up and protect your data on a daily basis. Online backups combine all of these functions in one easy service for a low monthly or annual fee.

The cost? If you or your staff spends as little as 10 minutes per day running a tape backup or burning a CD, figure just the cost of labor at about $100 per month. Add on top of that, the cost of CDs, or tapes and you're spending 4 or 5 times the cost of the average online backup fee, which requires “no time” daily once your initial setup is done. You can start an online backup account for as little at $5 - $15 per month.

5. Quick File Restores. In the event you need to restore your lost data, you simply select the applicable files or volumes and with a click of the mouse all of your data is transferred to its original location. Your data is ALWAYS available 24 hours a day – 7 days a week. You can recover a single file or all of your files in a matter of minutes.

6. Peace of Mind. Knowing that your data is safe, secure and always available is enough reason to check out an online backup solution.

7. The Alternatives. You can’t afford the alternatives! Computer users spend millions of dollars annually to recover lost data. The data recovery industry is HUGE and continues to grow. Assuming that your data is even recoverable - expect it to be an expensive and time consuming ordeal. Obviously, it is best to be prepared in the first place.

by Sol Spencer

About the Author

Sol Spencer helps computer users have the peace of mind that only a secure, online backup can provide. With Safe Harbor Data, you can restore your entire computer with one download! Amazingly affordable and effective, Safe Harbor protects your data with state-of-the-art encryption. Get the peace of mind that comes with secure, online backup today for only pennies each day. http://www.safeharbordata.com

You Lost Your Data... Don't Panic!

Inability to access your data stored on the data storage device could be caused by many reasons, from those that are easy to fix to those which are completely impossible to fix. If the damage is irreversible then data loss will occur. The causes of the failure of your hard drive or CD-ROM drive could vary from a bad connection due to a loose wire (which is easily recoverable) to damage to the media itself, which could still be recoverable in many cases.

As in the medical profession, the first principle of data recovery is: "do not harm".

If you are facing a data loss situation, what not to do is very important!

• Do not power up a device that has obvious physical damage.
  

• Do not power up a device that has shown symptoms of physical failure. For example, disks that make "obvious mechanical fault noises" such as ticking or grinding, should not be repeatedly powered on and tested as it just makes them worse.
  

• Activate the write-protect switch or tab on any problem removable media such as tape cartridges and floppies. (Many good backups are overwritten during a crisis.)
  

• Do not use free software. This is very important. Free data recovery software can be extremely dangerous and ruin your chances for a successful data recovery. Many companies offer free data recovery software -- also called Do-It-Yourself (DIY) data recovery software -- available for download on their website.
  

Even the best programs only work in very specific situations. While these free tools that are available may help, they usually only help if you are encountering one of a very few specific data loss situations.

Some programs may cause further or permanent data loss. While these programs are provided with good intention, even when carefully used these utilities may cause recoverable data to be permanently lost and may cause the loss of additional data.

Anyway, there is something you CAN do; if you are having data access problems and your media has no symptoms of physical failure or damage, try and check some obvious issues before deciding if you need data recovery:

• Are the power and disk cables properly connected?
  

• Is configuration or disk information correct?
  

• Try the defective unit with a different adapter/controller interface or on a different computer.
  

• Is there an experienced technician at a local store or the company help desk that you can consult, if these steps are beyond your capabilities? (Make sure whoever is in contact with your data loss situation is fully aware that they should do nothing during their troubleshooting that will risk hurting your data.)
  

Doesn’t work? Don’t panic; if the damage occurred to the drive's electronics, it most likely could be fixed. If the damage occurred to the, for example, system areas of the disk, leaving the data zone intact, those data could be theoretically, and (in some cases) practically, recovered by a professional.

Look on the Net for data recovery companies, ask them questions, explain them your situation. In most cases they will be able to understand your problem and fix it for a fair price.

by: Emanuele Allenti

About The Author Emanuele Allenti is the owner of http://www.hard-disk-data-backup-recovery.com - a website containing tips and useful information written by experts for those interested in backup and data recovery

What is data recovery?

Data recovery is the retrieval of inaccessible or contaminated data from media that has been damaged in some way. Data recovery is being increasingly used and is an important process nowadays.

There has been a lot of progress in increasing the memory capacity of data storage devices. Therefore data loss from any one incident also tends to be very high. The relevance of lost data can vary greatly. Maybe you have had the experience of storing a homework assignment on a floppy disk only to have it missing on the day the assignment in due.

Consider the fact that a large amount of businesses nowadays have vital organizational related data stored on machines. Also hospitals store data on patients on computers. Large amounts of websites nowadays use databases technology to enhance their websites and make them more dynamic. Php and MySql use has been on the rise on the Internet. Database failure is not uncommon and so it is not a fail proof method of storing information.

Companies have high reliance on computer technology to write and store data relevant to their business operations. Thus the data being stored can have a great deal of impact on personal lives and operations of companies.

There can be several causes of data loss.

Data loss can occur from unexpected incidences including national tragedies such as floods and earthquakes.

Often power failure can cause loss of data from hard drives. Sudden power surges can also cause a lot of damage to a computer’s hard drive.

Accidentally deleting a file or formatting a hard drive or floppy disk is a common reason for data loss.

If you have accidentally lost any important documents there are several steps you can take. Remember that if you have accidentally erased a file, it may not have vanished from your computer. It may have left an imprint in a different format on the computer’s hard drive or other storage devices. Recovering the data involves locating it and transforming it into human readable form.

Not all data may be recoverable.

You can either hire professional service to help you solve your problem or attempt a recovery on your own.

You can carry out data recovery operations on your own computer if you know what you are doing. There is data recovery software widely available that can assist you in the process.

Data recovery can become complicated if you overwrite on the storage device that has the lost data. Therefore if you do not know what you are doing, it is advisable to contact a professional service firm.

Data recovery professionals are experts in recovering data from all sorts of media and from a variety of damages done. There are many specialists out there who have years of experience in the IT field. The kind of data recovery operation to use will depend a great deal on the storage device and other variables such as the amount of damage done or the operation system used such as Macintosh, Windows or Linux.

There are some cases where it may be impossible to recover any data. However do not fret as the odds lie in your favor since a high percentage of data recovery operations are successful.

Preventing data loss

Of course the best way is to prevent data loss in the first place.

Data backup allows for restoring data if data loss occurs. Even ordinary pc users can set up their computer to carry out regularly scheduled backup operations. In the event of a hard drive crash or an unwise change in settings by an uninformed user, the restore tool can be used to retrieve deleted data or to restore the computer’s settings from an earlier time.

For the back up process to be useful it should involve several reliable backup systems and performing drills to make sure the data is being stored correctly. Additional protection methods from data loss include making sure that the hard drive is protected from damages from the external environment. This includes protection from sunlight and temperature extremes.

Also plugging in your pc into a surge protector rather than an ordinary outlet can give your computer a protection layer from electricity fluctuations. Keep your virus protection up to date. Also remember to keep your backup data separate from your computer.

Nevertheless a lot of companies will go through a disaster and experience data loss. The best thing to do is not to panic and also not to ignore the situation. The quicker you rectify the situation the better. Counting on data loss will help you be prepared for any such event.

by Andrew Malek

About the Author

Jakob Jelling is the founder of http://www.sitetube.com. Visit his website for the latest on planning, building, promoting and maintaining websites.

What is a Line-InterActive UPS

Line-InterActive UPS, sometimes referred to as an offline UPS, can be a cheap way to get battery backup and somewhat clean power to your computer equipment.


Generally the power flow of a line-interactive ups has AC power comming in, charges the batteries, and provides AC output. Even though there is no apparent switching device from the one-line, there is!. If incoming power is lost, power is "switched" between input AC and your batteries. There is a 2-5ms transfer time when the UPS actually switches to batteries. Note with critical loads, this means loss of data, hard drive lockup, or in the medical industry, instrument failure. One note of difference on a line interactive ups versus a standby ups is the addition of the Buck/Boost transformer. This transformer allows the output voltage to be "Bucked or Boosted" to the appropriate level. So if your input voltage drops to 98Volts AC, the transformer will boost the voltage up to 115Volts.

Typically this type of UPS is best suited in the home use, where equipment costs are at a minimum. However, a standby uninterruptible power system can be bought for as low as $100.00.

Often times the UPS is accompanied by some sort of equipment warranty, claiming if it damages any of your equipment, they will pay for it. Do not fall for this trap, because it will never happen. There is no way for you to prove that it was actually their UPS's fault.

Advantages:

* Stand-by uninterruptible power systems are fairly inexpensive.
* You will get some battery backup during a power outage, if your equipment does not lock up.
* Buck/Boost Transformer will regulate output voltage

Disadvantages:

* Very unreliable. Sometimes they will not even switch to batteries
* No Overload Capabilities. If you plug too much equipment into a line-interactive UPS, it will simply turn off
* No static bypass. If anything goes wrong with this UPS internally, it will automatically turn off.
* Very poor filtering (if any). Units will not protect against most surges
* No frequency regulation. Now, more then ever, while utility companies are deregulating, frequency is now becoming a growing issue.
* Because the unit has to transfer to batteries via a switch, this can cause problems with your equipment
* Because of the cheap charging methods, don't be surprised if you are not replacing your batteries every year.

by Damion McHenry

About the Author:

Damion McHenry is a power consultant that has worked in the power industry for many years. He worked for a major manufacturer of uninterruptible power supplies in marketing/sales/technical support.

View more information about UPS systems at http://theupspeople.com

How to REALLY backup the Windows Registry

Reprintable Article: Permission is granted for the
following article to forward, reprint, distribute, use for
ezine, newsletter, website, offer as free bonus or part of
a product for sale as long as no changes are made and the
byline, copyright, and resource box is included.
----------------------------------------------------------
How to REALLY backup the Windows Registry

By Stephen Bucaro

In Windows 3.x configuration information was stored in
human readable text files like win.ini, system.ini,
config.sys, and autoexec.bat. But that method of storing
configuration was inadequate to store configuration for
the enormous amount of bloat Microsoft put into Windows 95
and higher.

In Windows 95 and higher, configuration information is
stored in the "registry". The word "registry" rarely
appears without being accompanied by the word "warning",
and a vague description of how your computer will go up in
smoke if you even think about messing with the registry.

The registry is bloated and overcomplicated, but since it
is the central repository for almost all of Windows
configuration information, you will probably have to deal
with it sooner or later. In fact, if you ever require the
assistance of a support technician, the first thing they
will instruct you to do is open registry editor.

It is perfectly safe for you to work with the registry,
provided that you back it up first (and you know how to
restore it). Windows automatically creates a backup of the
registry every time you start your computer. But when you
are making configuration changes, you usually have to
reboot your computer several times, possibly writing bad
data to the backup.

To make your own backup of the registry, start your system
with your startup floppy disk. (If you can’t find your
startup disk, use the Add/Remove utility in Control Panel
to make a new one. Place a copy of the file attrib.exe
from the c:windowscommand folder on the disk.)

After you start your system with your startup disk, use
DOS to change to the C:WINDOWS directory (type c: then
cd windows). Then carefully type in the following DOS
commands.

attrib -s -h -r system.dat
attrib -s -h -r user.dat
copy system.dat c:
copy user.dat c:
attrib +s +h +r system.dat
attrib +s +h +r user.dat

Note: if your system is Windows Me, also back up
classes.dat

Then remove the startup disk and restart your system.

Why did I put you through such a laborious method just to
make a copy of two files? Could you just use Window’s
Explorer to copy the files? Could you use the Registry
Editor (Regedit) to back up the registry (or Windows Me
System Restore)?

Yes, you could. But what if your system crashed so that it
can’t even start in Safe Mode? Then you can’t use any of
those Windows programs to restore the registry. I put you
through the DOS method to make sure:

1. The boot sequence in your BIOS is setup to boot from
the A: drive.
2. You have the minimum proficiency with DOS to restore
the registry if required.
3. To make sure that you have a copy of attrib.exe on your
startup disk.

To restore the registry, start your system with your
startup disk. Use DOS to change to the c:windows
directory. Then type in the following commands.

attrib -s -h -r system.dat
attrib -s -h -r user.dat
del system.dat
del user.dat
cd
copy system.dat c:windows
copy user.dat c:windows
cd windows
attrib +s +h +r system.dat
attrib +s +h +r user.dat

Then remove the startup disk and restart your system.

My advice is to frequently use Windows Explorer to make
copies of the registry files. Make copies of the registry
files before you install any hardware or software or make
any changes to the registry. Make sure you are prepared
to use your startup disk and DOS to restore the registry.
----------------------------------------------------------
Resource Box:
Copyright(C)2002 Bucaro TecHelp. To learn how to maintain
your computer and use it more effectively to design a Web
site and make money on the Web visit
http://bucarotechelp.com
To subscribe to Bucaro TecHelp Newsletter Send a blank
email to bucarotechelp-subscribe@topica.com

DVD Backup Made Easy

If you are running backups on a regular basis, you have probably come across the problem that CDRs or CDRWs are simply to small for some backups. While you could split your backups to multiple CDs, this is not a very good solution if you have to backup 10GBs of data. The solution to this problem is to use DVDRs or DVDRWs instead. Since a DVD can easily store as much as 7 CDs, you could backup 5 to 10 GBs to a single DVD with a little compression. Using DVDs instead of CDs will speed up large backups considerably and will also greatly simplify storage.

Compression
In order to use the DVD media more efficiently you will probably want to compress your backup before writing it to the DVD. Compression can often reduce the size of a backup by 50% or more, doubling the capacity of your DVDs. A DVDR can usually store 4.7GBs of data and with compression you should be able to store about 10GBs on a single DVD. If you have ever tried to compress a 10GB file you probably know that this will take a lot of time. If you have a 20GB harddrive you might also have a problem storing the temporary uncompressed backup file. Since WinBackup compresses files on-the-fly backup operations are performed considerably faster. The built-in compression also reduces the need for a large temporary storage location and makes it much easier to run large backups to DVD-R or DVD-RW.

Encryption
When storing backups on CDs or DVDs, security can easily become a problem. Since DVDs can easily get lost or even stolen, you need to protect your backups from unauthorized access by using some kind of password protection or even encryption. A backup often contains emails, important documents and other sensitive information. In fact, if you backup your entire harddrive, your backup could even contain passwords to computers and websites. WinBackup allows you to password protect and encrypt your backups with up to 256 bit encryption, making it virtually impossible for anyone without the correct password to access your files. Since encryption can be performed automatically on all backups you do not need to worry about security every time to save a backup to DVD.

Integrated DVD Writing
Even though many pc owners have a DVD writer installed in their computer, surprisingly few use it to backup important data. One reason for this could be that many users feel that writing to DVDs is a little complicated. With WinBackup this is no longer true. WinBackups integrated CD/DVD writing features makes it easier than ever before to write backups directly to CDs or DVDs without knowing anything about DVD Writing. Storing your backup on a DVD is as simple as inserting an empty DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD-RAM, DVD+R or DVD+RW into your DVD Writer and clicking on "Run Backup". You can even leave a DVDRW in the DVD writer and schedule WinBackup to automatically update the contents daily. WinBackup also makes it easy to backup emails, documents or internet favorites with built-in shortcuts to important user data.

by Grant McNamara

About the Author

Software developer for LIUtilities ( www.liutilities.com )

Internet Backup System

Importance of Backups


08/29/05


by Grant McNamara

A backup is the term used to describe copying files from your computer's hard drive to another medium such as a tape or compact disk. The resulting backup can then be stored somewhere away from the computer. We should do this periodically in case our original files are lost in some way. The most common causes of files being lost include theft of computers, accidental errors we make, and hardware faults.

I was reminded of the need for backups earlier this week through a conversation with a friend. He runs a small computer shop and repair business. Whilst I was there a customer came in and left a nicely wrapped bottle of wine and said a hearty 'thanks', then left. My curiosity piqued I asked why their customer was so greatful. It turned out that the previous week something had gone wrong with his computer's hard disk and he had brought it in for repair. However the owner had no backup, and was terribly worried that he had lost all his data. The shop staff managed to correct the fault and 'save' his data; hence his relief and appreciation. My friend then told me that it was a daily occurence, and showed me some of the numerous gifts people had given in thanks.

But for many people their experience wasn't as fortunate. Sadly for many people who have hard disk faults, unless they have a backup all of their files are lost.

So if you are running a business based around a computer a regular backup of your data files is an absolute must. In my experience as a computer consultant many times the data has been lost because of a burglary. If your house or office is burgled invariably theives take computers. They are easily carried and readily sold.

And this raises the question of what should you backup? Well that's a hard question to answer because everyone's computer is different so I'll explain what I backup on my computer. My computer runs the Microsoft Windows operating system and has a single 'C:' disk drive.

I have all of my data stored in directories as follows:
C:WebSItes (the source of all my web sites, including text, graphics and scripts).
C:Work which is where I keep all correspondence and general junk
C:Courses where all the text to my courses is held
C:My Download Files where all original files of software that I download are stored.

The other directory I copy is
C:Documents and Settings which is where email files are stored. Without my email I'd be out of business!

My backup system is simple, a CD writer, some blank CDs and Nero Burning software (came free with the CD writer).

And once I've taken my backup I take the CDs to a friend's house for safe keeping. I do this every week.


About the Author

Grant McNamara has over 20 years experience in IT, specializing in multi-lingual web site and software development. Visit him at either http://www.selling-it.com/ or www://translateme.co.nz/

Internet Backup System

Backup

This website has daily updated articles about backup, anyone interested?
Backup Softwarez

What are Circuit Breakers?

Circuit Breakers are devices that stop the electrical current of a circuit in the event of excess or very high voltage. Circuit breakers are handy, not only because they can protect against electrical fires but also because they can be reset. When a fuse blows out, it must be replaced each time, whereas circuit breakers are easily reset when tripped.

Each appliance in your home receives electrical currents by way of electrical circuit breakers. Circuit breakers are considered to be either main or individual. The main circuit breaker controls power to the entire house while individual circuit breakers transmit power to individual appliances.

Electrical circuit breakers are probably the most important safety feature in a building. A circuit breaker measures the amount of heat produced by the current or by the magnetic field created by the small coil inside the breaker. When the current becomes too high, the breaker will cut off the circuit to stop it. Fuses serve the same function but can only be used once. Anyone who has blown a fuse can tell you it is much easier to have circuit breakers.

Electrical circuit breakers are also useful for shutting down power to the entire house. If you need to do some electrical maintenance, either for the entire structure or individual electrical wires, shutting down the main breaker can be a safety tool. Although electrical waves are invisible, we all know they have great potential danger. You should label each individual electrical circuit breaker so it is easily accessible for future use.

Direct current, or DC circuit breakers, are commonly used in automobiles. DC circuit breakers, unlike alternate current (AC) breakers, only deliver currents in one direction. These types of circuit breakers are a renewable energy delivery source, and special precautions should be taken when using them.

Since all batteries have the capability of producing enormous amounts of energy when short-circuited, care should be taken to properly install the breaker, fuse and disconnects in a vehicle. Autos should have additional protection against over current for the battery and each of the branch circuits. Vehicle fires sometimes result when the owner does not take proper precautions.

DC circuit breakers often have plastic beads inside of the fuse. When the current becomes too heavy, these plastic beads can melt and fill the void inside the fuse and prevent an arc from forming. If the current is very heavy this can cause electrical fires. While DC circuit breakers are effective in preventing damage from an overload of current, they are only effective to a certain degree. Any power source using DC technology should have a backup master fuse to protect the vehicle against total short-circuit.

by Elizabeth Morgan

About author:

Circuit Breakers Info provides detailed information about circuit breaker panels, circuit breaker manufacturers, plus advice on how to replace and install circuit breakers and where to buy used and surplus circuit breakers. Circuit Breakers Info is the sister site of Electricians Web.

The Importance Of Email Backup

Viruses, software failures, power failures, human errors, hard drive failures are only a few examples of what could destroy the data on a hard drive, including all documents, pictures, emails and other files!

Most home computer users don't need an expensive backup solution; as they only need to burn the folders with important documents and pictures to a CD-RW from time to time; this ensuring that in case of a disaster they can easily get them back.

Togeder with documents and pictures, it's a critical operation to save the emails, attachments, address book and other important data from within the email client; otherwise in case of a computer problem the user will find himself in the impossibility to get them back, and this can be a really unwanted situation especially for webmasters or people who rely on their emails. Unfortunately many people actually start to do backup copies only after they lose data.

This article will explain how one can create a Outlook Express Backup copy ( as Outlook Express lacks a backup function ) This email program is usually installed with the Windows operating system and is probably among the most commonly used email programs today. While using Outlook Express is fairly easy, finding and backing up the emails can be a little more complicated. Since there are a large number of files and folders on a computer running Windows, the first problem is to find the files containing the emails. Outlook Express stores emails in .dbx files and there might be several different dbx files depending on how many email folders you have created in Outlook Express. If you are using Windows 98, you can probably locate your emails somewhere in the Windows directory. In Windows 2000 and XP, emails are usually stored somewhere in the user data or application data folder.

The easiest way to find out exactly where your emails are stored is to start Outlook Express, go to the Tools menu, and open the Options dialog box. In the Options dialog box, select the Maintenance page and click the Store Folder button. Here you can find the path to the folder containing your emails. To open the folder, copy the path and paste in the address field of the Windows File Manager. You should see a number of .dbx files and possibly some other files, too.

After locating the email folder, you can simply select all the files and press Ctrl-C. Then open the folder where you want to keep the backup copies (on another hard disk, a DVD or a network drive, for example) in Windows Explorer, and press Ctrl-V.

To backup the Address Book, you can follow these steps:

• Select Tools Address Book... from the menu in Outlook Express.

• Choose File Export Other Address Book... from the address book's menu.

• Select Text File (Comma Separated Values) as the export format.

• Click Export.

• Select the location you want to export your address book to using the Browse... button.

• Give your backup copy a meaningful name.

• Click Next.

• Select the fields you want to include in your backup.

• Finally, select Finish.

• Click OK.

• Click Close to end the process (successfully, I hope).

Additionally, there are several email backup utilities which can make the backup operation much easier. Outlook Express Backup Genie is one piece of software that can offer peace of mind by creating compact backup copies of emails, attachments, address book, signatures, blocked list, mail rules and settings periodically. The difference between using a automatic email backup utility and manual backups, is that the first can be scheduled to create backups quiet in the background at specified time intervals, and that it will include all email information ( signatures, blocked list, etc ) which otherwise would be more difficult to save. Also if ever the backup is needed, the application will ensure that the restore process is made smoothly. And, it works with top 9 popular email clients. The downside of using a automatic email backup utility is that it costs money, usually about 20-30 USD as one time payment, while the manual backups are ofcourse, free.

The conclusion is that either manual or automatic, backing up emails is a critical operation for every computer user that would regret losing them.

A trial copy of Outlook Express Backup Genie can be found at: http://www.amicutilities.com/outlook-express-backup/

About The Author Alexandru Marias http://www.amicutilities.com

Can You Restore Your Data From Your Backup?

Making backup is vital!

For small business people the value of their business is
often stored on their computers.

Emails, contracts, PowerPoint presentations, business
contacts, text documents and client databases are all
vital information.

Accidents do happen and data can be lost!
Are you sure you can restore your data back to what it was?
Can you be back in business without losing to much time?

To be on the safe side you should adopt a working backup
strategy! Let's look at what can happen!

There are three different cases to consider.

1. Specific files or folders have been corrupted or deleted
by accident.

2. The data on your hard disk have been lost. This can be
caused by a virus or by hard disk failure.

3. Your computer have been lost. This can be caused by a
natural disaster, a fire or by theft.

Your preparation and action should to be different in each
different case.

It will also depend on how valuable the data are for you
and how much you are willing to spend on protection.

Here are your action plans for each case.

1. These are files which you are working with on a daily
basis. It is vital data to your business and you should
make backup of these files on a regular basis.

You should therefore identify them in advance.
It can be files in folders like MyDocument, your emails
or database files where you store your business
information.

To do this you need to find a backup product from which
you can easily make backup of these vital files on a
regular basis.

Store the backup you make in a safe place.

For extra security you can backup files online to a web
server or you can hire space from companies that offer
online backup services. If you use this option you
should encrypt your data.

2. When you have a hard disk data loss you have to format
the disk, maybe with the help from a person with
experience.

The work involved reconfiguring the computer by
installing Windows can be extensive.

First after that Windows and the backup program have been
installed are you able to restore the data from your
backup.

To avoid this extra work you may consider making a full
backup of your hard disk image. From an image backup you
are able to restore directly your complete data back to
your hard disk and avoid extra installation work.

3. You have lost your computer.
But, because you already have backup of your vital data
which you are working with on a daily basis, you are able
to restore your business to any configuration on a
new computer.

You just have to have your application products and your
working data restored to be back in business.

The problem you face is that in order to restore all your
hard disk data you need to have the same or a similar
configuration for everything to work out as before.
Maybe the operating system you used is not available
anymore or hard to find.

In any case you probably want the newest and latest
version.

This is where you have problems!

You can install the old operating system if you have the
installation CDs available.

When you install the backup program and install the data
from the backup you can run into problem. If it is a new
operating system then you do run into problem.

This is because program modules and also settings stored
in the registration file becomes mixed up and the
computer stops working.

It is often not enough to use the same Windows version in
the installation. Your backup you can still have a
different version as a result of different bug fixes.
This is what Microsoft calls Service Packs and your deep
level data can get mixed up.

As a result you may be losing software you have installed
from the Internet or bought from a supplier and you have
to purchase the products again.

There are two actions to take to solve this depending on
how important this is to your business.

One: You find that the products you have downloaded or
the application products you have bought are not of
high enough value. Or you can afford to purchase
the software again.

Two: You keep record of all software you have downloaded
and purchased on the Internet so that you can
contact the vendor for a new version.

You store all installation product and documentation
so that you can install the products from the
installation CD you have purchased over time.

To be on the safe side you should:

1. Make regular computer backup of the data you are working
with on a daily basis and have the computer backup stored
on a safe place. Preferably on a remote location.

2. Do make an image backup of your hard disk when you have
installed new software. This ensures that you can be back
in business in the case of corrupted hard disk or hard
disk failure.

3. Document all your purchases and passwords. Keep records
and store all software installations. Keep all this at a
remote location.

============================================================
Per Strandberg have been working with data management and
runs an information site for backup products and
data security!
GoTo ==> www.data-backup-and-storage.com and get information
on backup products and learn how to protect your data
============================================================

About the Author

Per Strandberg has been working with data management and software development.
He currently runs an information site on backup products and
data security!
www.data-backup-and-storage.com

How To Backup Your Hard Drive

We all know that we should back up our system as soon as possible. But if you're like most of us, you will get to it tomorrow. The problem is that tomorrow rarely ever comes until you experience a serious computer failure and then it’s too late.

Taking the time to backup your data or entire hard drive is not as painstaking as it may seem. And the rewards of doing so will be great should your system experience a crash.

WINDOWS AND OTHER BACKUP SOFTWARE

If you have Windows XP you will need to install the new Windows backup utility from the Windows XP cdrom. Just place the WinXP cdrom in your cdrom drive and locate the line D:VALEADDMSFTNTBACKUP.

Here you see the first letter as D but if your optical drive has a different drive letter, exchange the D with your drive's letter. To install the utility, click on the file named NTBackup.msi.

The backup utility will be installed to the system tools group. Click Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, and Backup. There is a neat wizard that will walk you through the backup process.

WinXP's backup utility will backup your entire hard drive and will make a recovery disk to boot.

One neat third party backup software you can try is NewTech InfoSystems at http://www.ntius.com where you can download their trial version and put it to use for 30 days. And if it’s your cup of tea, the full version will run you about $79.95

INCREMENTAL OR DIFFERENTIAL BACKUPS

You should back up your entire hard drive when you perform your first backup. After that it is best to perform an Incremental backup. This type of backup only allows you to backup files that have changed since your last performed backup.

Differential Backups copy changed files that have been added since you last did your entire backup. This type of backup is more detailed than incremental backups and is easier to restore.

BACKUP STORAGE DEVICES

You can backup your files on cdroms and have the files compressed to save both space and backup time. WinXP will compress folders, subfolders, and files during backup.

You can purchase compression software that will do the same, saving you cdrom storage space. The compressed files are automatically uncompressed once they are restored onto your hard drive.

You can also use a second hard drive as your backup storage device. We use two backup hard drives to be certain Ultimate PC Repair is up and running 24/7.

You can either purchase an internal hard drive and install it to your ide cable, or you may want to purchase an external hard drive that connects to your Universal Serial Bus or USB Port.

The advantage of the external drives is that they have very large amounts of storage space, transfer data fast, and can be moved from your computer to any other computer.

We use the Western Digital 170 Gigabyte External Hard Drive and we simply bounce it around to either one of our four computers with the greatest of ease.

USING ONLINE BACKUP SERVICES

You may also consider online services for backing up your data. If you lose all your backup data, say due to a natural disaster such as a flood, your online data is right there waiting for you.

Another advantage of online backups is that you can access, upload, or download your data from any location. It is best to use high speed internet access if you're considering online data storage.

One such online backup service is Istorage located at http://www.iomega.com/istorage and charges from $2.49 a month for 50MBs to $17.95 a month for a big 1,000MBs of storage.

Or you can check out FilesAnywhere located at the url http://www.filesanywhere.com

Still another online service to try is CapSure located at http://www.capsure.com

Backup your system now in one way or another if you have not done so. If you have critical data that you simply cannot do without, take the time to invest in a backup device or one of the many online backup services.

Stop and perform those backups as soon as possible. You will be thankful you did should something go wrong with your computer. It’s always better to be safe than sorry.

by: Otis F. Cooper

About The Author Otis F. Cooper is the author of the award winning PC Super Pack, the Computer Training By Video course. For hundreds more free PC repair tips, sign up for his bi-monthly newsletter and learn the PC free at http://www.ultimatepcrepair.com

Creating a Backup Plan

Your company's data may be its most important asset. Imagine a large corporation with millions of dollars of account receivable and account payable data stored on their network. A fire causes massive data loss. How much work would be required to re-create the lost data? Without backups, the company may not survive the disaster.

Choosing a backup media is important, but in this article I'll focus on creating a plan for the type and frequency of backups. Let's assume you will use some type of tape backup media.

If your company has only a small amount of data, you may be able to perform a full backup every night. You would need two tapes which you would alternate in case the most recent full backup turns out defective. At least you have a previous one to go back to. You would store the tapes in a secure off-site location to avoid being destroyed in the same disaster that might destroy the original data.

When you perform a full backup, each file that gets baked up has the "archive" attribute in its file properties set to zero.

The archive attribute is a flag stored for each file that has been created or modified. It indicates that the file needs to be archived. Backup programs can reduce the size of backups by saving only files which have been modified since the previous backup. When the file is saved in a full or incremental backup, the archive bit is set to one.

In Windows, you can view the archive attribute for any file by right-clicking the file in Windows Explorer and selecting "Properties" in the popup menu. In the "Properties" dialog box, click on the "Advanced..." button.

If your company has a large amount of data, it would be too time consuming to perform a full backup every night. Instead, you would perform a full backup only on Friday nights, and perform a "differential" backup on other weekday night. This backup plan would require six tapes.

- A differential backup saves all files that have been created or modified since the last FULL backup.

- Restoring with differential backups is easy. You need just use two tapes. First restore the last full backup. Then restore the last differential backup.

A differential backup doesn't reset the archive attribute. The next time you perform a differential backup, it will again save all the files that have changed since the last full backup. So each night, the differential backup will get progressively larger until the next you perfrom a full backup.

If your company has a great amount of data that changes every day, it would be too time consuming to perform a differential backup every night. Instead, you might perform a full backup on Friday nights, and an "incremental" backup on other weekday night.

- An incremental backup saves only the files that have changed since the last full or incremental backup.

An incremental backup checks the archive attribute to determine if the file has changed and needs to be backed up. Then it resets the archive attribute. An incremental backup stays small because it includes only files that have changed since the last full or incremental backup.

- Restoring with incremental backups is more time consuming. First, restore the last full backup. Then restore all the incremental backups made since the full backup, in the order they were made. The only reason to use an incremental backup scheme is if differential backups become too large, requiring more than one tape.

Many company networks continue to opperate on Saturday and even Sunday. In this case, you would need to add the required additional tapes to the plan.

If during the day your company creates a large volume of data, or a small amount of data that is too critical to wait for the standard night time backup, you can perform a copy backup. To do this, you just copy the selected files to a backup media.

Copyright(C) 2004 Bucaro TecHelp.

Permission is granted for the below article to forward, reprint, distribute, use for ezine, newsletter, website, offer as free bonus or part of a product for sale as long as no changes are made and the byline, copyright, and the resource box below is included.

About The Author Stephen Bucaro To learn how to maintain your computer and use it more effectively to design a Web site and make money on the Web visit bucarotechelp.com. To subscribe to Bucaro TecHelp Newsletter visit http://bucarotechelp.com/search/000800.asp.

How to make a DVD backup

Whether you want to transfer your pics to DVD (Digital Versatile Disc) or you want to backup a DVD to another DVD, I know you need some clarification about the whole process.

Their are quite a few DVD formats to choose from but which one is right for you in this rather confusing world of dvd formats? Shall I store my photo's on a DVD-RW, DVD+R, DVD-R or DVD+R DL? What about just copying a DVD to DVD?

DVD Writers

To get down to basics you will first of all need a DVD drive that will be able to write your data (music, film, pictures, etc) to a disc. Most modern computers have at least a DVD-ROM drive which stands for Read Only Memory meaning it will only read (play) your DVD but it cannot write the data to a disc.

In order to write your data to disc you will have to have a DVD writer which will write (burn) your data directly onto the disc. A laser burns your info to disc which is why the terms DVD burning or burn to disc are frequently used. Disc Formats

A normal single layered DVD disc (DVD+R, DVD-R, DVD-RW) will hold upto 4.37GB of information on a single side of a DVD. There are also Dual layer discs (DVD+R DL) which have twice the capacity of a normal DVD (8.5GB). These discs have two layers on a single side which are read by a special laser which switches it frequencies depending on which layer it is reading on the same side of a disc. Although you will need an upto date dvd-writer in order to burn dual layered discs.

We won't concern ourselves with dual layers in this article. Its enough to know they exist and we have to have a more advanced dvd-writer for that.

So the label on the box says DVD-R. What does that mean?
Well, the R bit on any DVD stands for recordable which means you can write your data directly onto the disc using your basic everyday DVD writer.

DVD-R was the first format that was developed by Pioneer and is used by most computer users today. These discs will work with most DVD players on the market at the time of writing.

DVD-RW is pretty much the same as above but the 'W' bit means the disc is re-writeable. You can over-write existing data over and over again. You can usually write the disc as much as upto a 1000 times! I would suggest practise writing to DVD-RW to stop wasting DVD's and then write to a DVD-R when you want a more permanent copy.

Then we have DVD+R DVD+RW. These discs will do the same job as DVD-R and DVD-RW but tend to cost just a little more to buy. There is actually little difference between +R and -R. They are slightly more expensive but in most respects have the same longevity and reliability as DVD-R.

Need for speed

Different DVD writers have different write speeds as well. DVD+R will burn faster than there counterparts DVD-R. The old write speed was 4x but now DVD writers can burn at 16x speeds. So if your dvd writer burns at 8x just make sure you buy discs that burn at 8x or whatever speed your drive is. Easy!

Creating That First Disc

You will find information regarding your DVD writer on the box or in the instructions like:

Recording Formats
DVD+R, DVD-R, DVD+RW, DVD-RW

Recording Speeds
8x, 4x, 2.4x,

Connections
USB, Firewire

Now you know that you can burn a DVD+R at 8x speed on your burner. Thats all you need to know in order to burn that first disc. What are you waiting for? Go and impress someone with your new found burning skills!

If you would like to get started with DVD copying then go now to http://www.dvd-burning.org to discover how you can make your first dvd backup!

by Steve Bishop

How to Backup a PC

Everyone thinks, ‘it won’t happen to me’. But what if it does? All your files, pictures and documents gone, in an instant. Sure, you can reach for the disks that came with your computer to reinstall the applications but what about the most important component, your data? Data backup is something too many computer owners ignore.

There are a number of things that can bring down your computer, some of which include a power surge, hard drive crash, careless mistakes, viruses, a fire or theft.
If your system did not come with a recovery disc, you should consider making a backup disc as soon as possible. This is important should you ever need to rebuild your system to its “as bought” condition.

How often you back up your data varies from person to person. It depends on the volume of data input, frequency of change, and the nature of your data. A general rule of thumb would be to back up anything that would be difficult and time-consuming to re-create.
How to backup data:

If you have Windows XP, it includes backup software; however, if you’re running on Home Edition, it isn’t installed by default. Once the software is installed, go to the Start menu and choose “accessories”, then “system tools”, then “backup” in order to run the backup wizard. On the final screen, you can press the “advanced” button which will allow you to automatically schedule recurring backups. The wizard also allows you to create a system recovery disc which will enable you to boot and rescue your data should Windows get damaged. At the end of this article, you will find a list of programs and software that can do the data backup for you.
You may think you’d like to back up everything you have in your computer. However, there is no need to back up software and applications since these can be reinstalled with the original discs. Most Windows programs now have a default for storing data within your user profile.
Backup programs:

There are a number of programs that perform data backup for you, some of which are described here. Ghost 9.0 creates full drive images, IBackup copies files to remote databases, and Dantz’s Retrospect Professional 6.5 is a traditional backup tool. There is also free software available for data backup. For instance, Backup4 protects your data and features an easy backup wizard that allows you to schedule backups whenever you like. Disk Tools Image Maker is an easy-to-use disk imaging tool which allows you to create exact images of your entire drive. It works directly from within Windows so there is no need to boot from a floppy. Handy Backup is another software which makes an automatic backup of critical data to any type of storage medium.

Backup Tips:
Here are a few tips to keep in mind regarding data backup:
Don’t procrastinate. Most people decide to back up their data only after they’ve experienced a loss!

Try to find a backup software that can hold twice as much as your hard disk so that you’re able to schedule backups when you’re not there.
Back up only what is necessary. However, if you’re not sure, back it up ... better safe than sorry!
About The Author
Marisa Pellegrino is a freelance writer from Montreal and is the head researcher and content manager for RAID RECOVERY (www.raidrecoveryguide.com) and other sites.
info@raidrecoveryguide.com

Backup, but where to?

We all know we have to backup regularly, but those backups files can get huge. Add that to your existing your files and your notebook computer hard drive seems to have shrunk overnight. No matter what size hard drive you have on your notebook computer, space is a premium. Besides, it's not exactly a good idea to store your backups on the same hard drive since you can't retrieve it -- rather defeats the purpose of backing up don't you think? So what do you do, what are your options?

Backup to an external hard drive. This is probably the quickest, most cost effective option. You can often get a removable drive on sale or with rebate for a low price too. You can get one with hundreds of Gigabytes of space too. They can be easy to hookup to your notebook computer. However, do remember that they are hard drives and hard drives can fail. You may find the external backup fails before your notebook computer does.

Online backup. This is actually a good idea because physical disasters can happen to your home. And when that happens, you will always have a copy in a place not affected by the disaster. This is why businesses usually have one backup in the premises and one (or more) off premises. The good thing about online backup is, it's accessible from anywhere with an internet connection. So if your notebook fails when you're away from home, you can still retrieve your data.

Many of these services are reasonably priced and they provide you with everything you need to get the backups safely transfered. But because your data will be on someone else's system, choose a reputable company, one who is not only established but takes customer data confidentiality very seriously.

Network attached storage. This would make more sense if you have several computers. They allow you to not only backup several computers' data into one location but also ability to share or retrieve files from that central area. You can also achieve a similar effect equipping an older computer with a large hard drive and use it just for storage or backup.

Backup to CD or DVD. This is considered the safest for long term data integrity. External drives and network storage can still crash and prone to virusses. CD's and DVD's are also inexpensive. But backing up to disks daily is chore as you'll find yourself having to manually pop in the disks. It becomes even more hard work when you have a lot of files and your backup spans several disks. The other problem with this method is, backup utilities that come with your operating system cannot backup to a CD or DVD drive. So you'll have to fork out extra cash to buy a third party backup software that will.

No backup solution is one hundred percent and what you choose of course will depend on how you work. If your data is really important to you, try not rely on one backup source. Create two separate sources if you can afford to, just in case.

by Lyn Chann